State-Owned Monopoly Makes Transition to Open Market with Six Sigma

State-owned monopolies which are then privatized typically have disasterous results when their often bloated payrolls and inefficient products hit the free market.  However, KT Corp., Koreas largest fixed-line telephone and broadband Internet operator is having great success through their incorporation of Six Sigma.  Over a year after the company launched its Six Sigma Initiative, the company is seeing the benefits of their efforts, as the company has cut over $183 million US in costs since the beginning of 2004.  The company began the process by first looking at customer relations and then reaching backward through its supply chain.  The company is so pleased with its initial results that it plans to announce the expansion of the program within the next month. The Korea Herald Reports:

It would be hard to say that KT has completed its transition from a state fixed-line monopoly to a well-functioning private company but we hope that the six sigma effort will bring us closer. The Six Sigma Initiative is at the center of our efforts to enhance competitiveness and reinvent ourselves as a world-class company, said Lee.